Free Republic

*

I am going to disappoint Leon Wieseltier. The famous liberal wrote this week, "A day does not go by when I do not do my humble part to prevent such a transformation [of American Jewry from liberals to conservatives] from coming to pass." Well, Leon, you let one get by. My transformation has occurred. It began with 9/11 and progressed along bumpily until the Obama, Pelosi, Reid express train came roaring down the track . . . For years I had been looking around and asking, "What the heck has happened to the Democratic Party that I grew up in?"...

Arkansas Rep. Marion Berry is expected to announce his retirement tomorrow morning, according to three sources briefed on the decision. Berry will become the sixth Democrat in a competitive seat to leave in the last two months but the first to announce his retirement since the party's special election loss in Massachusetts last Tuesday. Berry, first elected in 1996, had been noncommittal about his re-election bid for months although, privately, his allies insisted he was planning to run for re-election. While Berry had rarely been challenged in the 1st district over the past decade or so, the seat has a...

Republicans are stepping up their efforts to persuade more House Democrats to switch parties and are zeroing in on a second-term Pennsylvanian who is not ruling out such a move. Democratic Rep. Chris Carney received a phone call Wednesday from Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) asking him to consider becoming a Republican, a top GOP official told POLITICO. A spokesman for Carney declined to say if the congressman was considering such a switch. “No further comment at this time,” said Carney spokesman Josh Drobnyk, who would only confirm that the call took place. In a brief interview, McCain declined to offer...

Republicans are trying to woo U.S. Rep. Chris Carney to switch parties, with Sen. John McCain among several GOP leaders making pitches to the Susquehanna County Democrat. Mr. McCain on Wednesday called Mr. Carney at his home in Dimock Twp. to ask whether he would consider joining the GOP, a Carney spokesman confirmed. The effort to persuade Mr. Carney was first reported by Politico, which quoted a GOP aide who said the party received "a nibble" from Mr. Carney. But Mr. Carney's spokesman, press secretary Joshua Drobnyk, rebutted that part of the report. Mr. Carney in a statement late Wednesday...

Here's an early Christmas present folks: "I have become increasingly concerned that the bills and policies pushed by the current Democratic leadership are not good for north Alabama or our nation and, more importantly, they do not represent my values and convictions." Fox News video I pray that this is just the beginning!

Rep. Parker Griffith (D-AL R-AL) might be facing some opposition on right after his party switch, but he is being welcomed to the GOP by one top name: Sarah Palin. Palin posted this on her Twitter account: "Congratulations Alabama!And all Americans concerned about Capitol Hill's current agenda;Rep Parker Griffith just did the right thing.Welcome" Other big right-wing names, such as the Club For Growth and Erick Erickson, are already laying the groundwork for a primary challenge against Griffith by what they would think of as a truly loyal conservative. But so far at least, Palin is greeting the new GOP...

Usually one does not see Congressmen or Senators flipping parties to join the minority. However, Politico’s Josh Kraushaar has a scoop that Blue Dog Democrat Parker Griffith of Alabama, a freshman in Congress, has seen enough of Nancy Pelosi’s leadership. He will join Republicans in a move that has far more symbolic than substantive impact — for now: POLITICO has learned that Rep. Parker Griffith, a freshman Democrat from Alabama, will announce today that he’s switching parties to become a Republican. According to a senior GOP aide familiar with the decision, the announcement will take place in this afternoon in...

POLITICO has learned that Rep. Parker Griffith, a freshman Democrat from Alabama, will announce today that he’s switching parties to become a Republican. According to a senior GOP aide familiar with the decision, the announcement will take place in this afternoon in his home district in northern Alabama.

By teeing up a public battle over abortion in the health care bill now before the Senate, congressional Democrats could be risking more than just the fate of the legislation. Hanging in the balance are millions of Catholic swing voters who moved decisively to the Democrats in 2008 and who could shift away just as readily in 2010. According to exit polls, President Barack Obama won the support of 53 percent of Catholic voters, a seven-point increase over the showing of the Democrats’ 2004 nominee, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), a Catholic. Among Latino Catholics, who are often more conservative than...

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour says the decision by seven Simpson County elected officials to switch from Democrat to Republican comes at the right time.

State Rep. Chuck Hopson says he's leaving the Democratic Party and becoming a Republican. Hopson says President Barack Obama and Democrats in Congress don't reflect the conservative values of his East Texas district. Hopson, in a phone interview from Jacksonville, said Friday that more than 70 percent of voters in his district voted for Republican John McCain in the 2008 presidential election. The decision is tough blow for the Texas Democratic Party. The split in the Texas House of Representatives was a narrow 76-74 in favor of the GOP.

On Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2009, the day after the Elections, in which the GOP took both State Houses in VA and NJ, 7 top elected Hardin County, TX officials held a joint news conference, and all 7 switched from the Democratic Party to the GOP. Could this be the beginning of a "movement" ?

Sunday, Sept. 13, 2009 U.S. floated plan to withdraw fighter jets Japan stayed silent in light of North Korea, realignment worries Kyodo News The U.S. government sounded out Japan in early April about pulling out all of the approximately 40 F-16 fighters from Misawa Air Base in Aomori Prefecture, possibly beginning later this year, sources close to Japan-U.S. relations said Friday. As part of the ongoing review of the U.S. defense strategy by the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama, the United States at the time also told Japan of an idea to remove some of the more than 50...

MONTPELIER — Democratic Vermont Auditor Tom Salmon is switching parties to the GOP. Salmon announced his plans today, saying he is frustrated with the Democrats’ handling of the budget, and says the party has moved too far to the left. Salmon says he plans to run for auditor next year, but says if Republican Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie does not run for governor, there’s a very slim chance he might. Salmon says he’s been considering switching parties for some time and says the Republican party is the closest to accepting the realities of the times. He says when he returned...

MS State Rep. Billy Nicholson Switches PartiesBy Jennifer Jacob Brown, February 26, 2009State Rep. Billy Nicholson of Little Rock has changed parties and is now a Republican rather than a Democrat, the Mississippi Republican Party announced Wednesday. Nicholson, 61, has served in the Mississippi State House of Representatives since 2000. With Nicholson's switch, there are now 49 Republicans and 73 Democrats in the House. Nicholson said he changed parties both because he feels the Republican Party is a better match for him philosophically and because the Democratic Party threatened to deny his certification in future elections after his endorsement...

With Barack Obama's victory and Democratic gains in Congress, more than a few commentators are talking about that "r" word so important in presidential politics -- "realignment." Was 2008 a realigning election? I don't think so. The academic discussion of realignment began with V.O. Key's seminal 1955 essay "A Theory of Critical Elections." Key wrote that critical or realigning elections exhibit high voter interest and realigning voter turnout, as well as a shift in the dominant political ideology. Most often cited is FDR's victory over Hoover in 1932, which started a decades-long period of Democratic dominance. Americans tended to support...

The big question that everyone is asking is whether this month's general election marked the beginning of a political realignment that will create a new dominant party. Have Americans shifted their loyalties and fundamental assumptions about the parties and about the government, or did we just witness a short-term reaction to years of bad news? Let's be clear: The election results in 2006 and 2008 constitute the kind of one-two punch that is rare in modern American political history. It would be silly to portray this year's election as a minor hiccup. The nation elected a liberal African-American Democrat from...

The Democratic Party that existed during my childhood and through early adulthood bore little or no resemblance to what it has become. In earlier times being a Democrat identified one as a proud, God-inspired American with intense traditional values, true love of country, belief in a strong, cohesive family unit, hard work, self-reliance, dedication to constitutional norms, equality and respect for others. Today, however, the party I once knew seems to say forget religious beliefs, forget the right to defend one's self, forget about hard work, just let working taxpayers provide, and disavow longheld moral decency standards as being irrelevant...

When Sen. Barack Obama chose the Nissan Pavilion in the outer suburbs of Northern Virginia to kick off his general-election campaign, one of the 10,000 supporters there was David Bruzas, who recently moved to the fastest-growing part of a state that is moving rapidly away from its Republican past. "Being in this area has made me a lot more politically in tune with what's going on," said Bruzas, 27, a systems engineer from Illinois who moved to Fairfax County to work for Cisco Systems in 2005. "And I identify with Obama." Only a few hours west on Route 50, in...